System Shock Remake Review

thesixthaxis.com:

The original System Shock is easily one of the most influential and important games of the MS-DOS era. Widely credited as the genesis of the immersive sim genre, its first person perspective and techno horror atmosphere can be traced through titles such as Half-Life, Deus Ex and, more recently, Arkane’s Prey and beyond. While its historical significance is unarguable, modern players will find returning to the original game a tough pill to swallow compared to some other 90s classics. Can this full System Shock remake revamp it for a modern audience?

In some ways we’ve been here before. Nightdive Sudios released System Shock Enhanced Edition in 2015 with a clutch of quality of life fixes and support for modern Windows systems. This was really more of a teaser as Nightdive soon announced a full remake of the game. Finally, after years of delays, that remake is now here, and… it’s still System Shock, for better and for worse.

The cinematic opening of the original is present and correct, although here you immediately get to take control of your unfortunate hacker protagonist. After exploring your apartment you click on your laptop and start to hack into Tri-Optium systems. Immediately you are rudely interrupted by armed security and ‘persuaded’ to break into the settings of SHODAN, the AI of the Capital space station. Instructed to remove SHODAN’s ethics settings you are then drugged and the screen fades to black, only to wake up in the Capital’s medical bay and have to contend with robots, mutants, and the psychopathic SHODAN herself.

The first thing players will notice is the Unreal Engine 4 graphical update. Gone are the primitive blocks of colours and blocky enemies, replaced with a far more detailed and contemporary